Pathways, Again

 

‘Pathways’ also describes the route we trace through time,

choosing, obtaining, and processing the sense data, memories, and fantasies

we have been motivated to select. So we have the pathway out there which our bodies may take in exploring,

 and the pathway in our heads along which we plot the results of our curiosity.

There is a unity, then, between spatially hidden elements

(path disappearing behind a coulisse;

a realm or domain partly hidden behind and beyond a line of trees;

hidden within a container such as a cupboard or a fruit skin);

temporally hidden elements

(as in a soap opera, a melody in Beethoven’s Pastoral,

the nature of the star of Balzac’s Sarrasine,

how the pirate lost his eye,

whether the heroine gets her man in a Mills and Boon novel,

how P&O fits with how a lamb ‘goes’,

or what sort of cuisine ‘caution’ refers to);

or elements hidden by a delay in our ability to process available information

(applying a new metaphor,

ambiguous semantics in poetry,

oxymorons in marketing, neurolinguistic programming,

or complex images).

 

But while the nature of the pathway

is irrelevant in terms of it turning on our exploratory behaviour –

the archetype is equally triggered by  ’glimpses’ of visual, auditory, somatic, gustatory, or olfactory origin –

 the nature of the pathway itself varies a lot.

For example, in the pirate joke, there are several pathways.

The first could be regarded as a sequence of species

from the genus ‘piratical high-risk adventures’:

 

Species:                    1                            2                       3

Leg                        Hand                       Eye            damaged bodypart

Shark                    Sword                    [Seagull Poo]          cause

 

----------------------x---------------------x-----------à - -  x?                                  genus = piratical high risk adventures

 

[Seagull Poo = Hook]                  ?

 

[---------------------x---------------------x-----------<-------x-----------------]                  genus = mundane oversight

 

The second,

once we discover that ‘seagull poo’ is actually a metonym

for a careless gesture with his new hook, means ‘mundane oversight’.

And one then begins tracking backwards to question whether the pirate

lost his leg and hand to similar oversights.

Both though, rely on two other pathways – damaged bodyparts, and causes.

Causes, in fact consists of two paths, too: evident piratical hazards,

and commonplace non-bodypart threatening ones.

 

It is only by being derailed from the piratical hazard path

that we realise all is not well with our patterning, and we seek clarification.

Causes and damaged bodypaths constitute two ‘clue’ paths.

But ‘piratical adventures’ and ‘mundane oversight’ constitute two ‘social/quest conclusion’ pathways.

(That is, ‘Pirate = Hero’ transforms into ‘Pirate = Fool’.)

So the clue paths of our Explorer Hypothesis feed to another level,

dealt with in the next section,

on the Quest Hypothesis.

 

Note in passing that the disappearance of a ‘piratical’ cause

for the loss of the eye – the sudden disappearance of this causal pathway,

prompted exploratory behaviour, and a feeling of confusion and anticipation.

That exploratory behaviour elucidated the next piece of evidence,

which converted piratical cause to nonpiratical cause,

first wave of amusement –

then tumbled the pirate from the hero box

to the fool box.

 

What is the Pathway made of, then?

Different species from within the same genus.

 

And the genus is the nature/meaning of the Pathway.

Introduce a species that doesn’t fit,

an Obstacle,

and people will think

‘did I pick the wrong genus?’

 

But the paths do not have to be all semantic –

the incongruity can also be on the syntactical level, as we saw with Heinz Spicy Sauce:

 

Species:                         1                     2                    3                   4

         Delicious with:       Chinese            Italian           French           [caution]

Syntax:                       Adj                 Adj                 Adj                 N

 

In the pirate example we had – perhaps – two paths.

Pirate as hero, and in the third example pirate as fool.

Or maybe one path – pirate as fool all the way,

but mistakenly interpreted as pirate as hero up until the seagull poo.

But here there are definitely two paths,

and the jolt came because ‘caution’ did not fit

in the nationality adjective box

set aside for it.